I am new to the world of straights, but I am thinking of cheap long term products to make my cheap newbie razors fun and special. Besides Maas and a polish cloth, I think the easiest way to do this is new scales. I was looking at different woods and plastics and thinking what could I do, when I realised, what if I made something truly unique, something from my homeland in Africa? And I thought of malacite or tiger's eye scales. The rough is not so cheap: 25 or so bucks for a rock large and nice enough. The work: long and tedious. But Since this is long term and would really be unique, it's worth the time and effort to me. If it works. My question to the pro's is, is it feasible scale material? I understand that typically there is some flex to scales, to hold the blade open etc, does it matter that they are rigid? Instead of a wedge could a flat piece be used? Could thin rubber washers be used at the pin to hold the blade open? Any advice, cautions, doubts etc would be welcome. I don't want to throw hours of work into something not feasible. (btw, malacite is a green crystalling looking rock that is cut and polished into lots of different shapes with great effect, so is tiger's eye and it's blue variant, hawk's eye)